Peoples Home Equity comments on important data points that will be released next week relating to the housing market.

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Economic highlights that Peoples Home Equity will be waiting to see this week include: existing home sales, weekly mortgage applications, and initial jobless claims. Each data point will play an important role in re-confirming current trends.

The first important data point will be on Wednesday, January 22nd when the Mortgage Bankers Association releases its weekly mortgage application survey. Reports have been mostly negative since November 6th, 2013, showing declining numbers of applications for 7 of the past 10 weeks. However, for the past two weeks the weekly survey has posted positive number, reporting a very large rise last week of 11.9%.

After looking at how many mortgage applicants exist recently, lenders and home buyers alike will be focusing on Thursday’s existing home sales report. Existing home sales have declined for the past 3 consecutive months, declining in November 2013 by -4.29%. Looking forward to December’s existing home sales report being released on Thursday, January 23rd. Peoples Home Equity is hoping to see something better than market expectations at 0.0% growth. Given that both initial jobless claims and the unemployment rate decline in December existing home sales just may show a surprise.

Also being reported on Thursday will be initial jobless claims ending the week of January 17. Watching the labor market through weekly claims the the market a general barometer where the unemployment rate may be. With claim numbers declining for 3 of the past 4 weeks, Peoples Home Equity wouldn't be surprised with a small jump on Thursday.

In conclusion this week will be pivotal for seeing if trends continue in both initial jobless claims and weekly mortgage applications. Both at points have begun a rent trend down for claims and up for mortgage applications, the market will be comforted to see this continue. Time will only tell. But regardless of economic conditions prospective home buyers should know that interest rates are expect to rise regardless on any further tapering of QE3 by the Federal Reserve. To hedge this risk, individual’s should apply for a home loan now and at least get locked into a promised low rate fixed rate mortgage now by a friendly lender.